In recent months, thousands of youth from various evacuated municipalities have participated in several days of vacation at Israeli summer camps that have provided enjoyable and empowering activities, allowing them to “be children again,” even if only for a few days. “It’s not just a social contribution. It’s a personal contribution, because every boy and girl has enjoyed an experience they will always remember with a huge smile. They felt seen, important, and special at this time,” said members of the Re’im community whose youth participated in one of the camps.
Behind this project is the Summer Camps Israel forum, which routinely brings tens of thousands of Israeli youth from all over the country to summer camps. The “Boost Camps” project was launched last November after the communities were somewhat stabilized in evacuation centers, and the need arose from the middle schools and high schools where the children had not yet found themselves. Many students were scattered throughout the country, separated from their peers, and some had even lost contact with the education system. The forum understood that brief camps would be an excellent key to restoring their smiles and joy of life, to enable them to reconnect with those with whom they had lost touch, and to delicately address the trauma they had suffered by creating a parallel reality and processing it within their peer group.
Thus far, over 3,000 boys and girls from the north and south have participated in 28 camps, for which the forum raised over NIS 3 million. The forum will also operate camps during the Passover holiday. The project operates in cooperation with local authorities and is operated by the Israeli summer camps – Geshar, Rama, Habonim Dror, Mercaz Maaseh, Kimama, and the Masa Israeli program. Among the many municipalities that have already participated in the project are Sha’ar HaNegev, Eshkol, Ofakim, Sderot, Hof Ashkelon, Kiryat Shmona, Nahariya, Netivot, and others.
“Boost Camp” provides youth from disadvantaged backgrounds with a comprehensive framework that includes a guidance staff, emotional support, and the presence of educators familiar to them from home. Throughout the week, they engage in bonding activities, workshops, outdoor activities, dialogue sessions, and more. The camps report that the activities make a noticeable impact on the youth, and the children themselves report that the camp experience improves their abilities during this period: being away from home, making connections, enabling themselves to reduce anxiety levels, and enjoying themselves after a long period without this feeling.
The forum is now looking ahead, and due to the demand and success of the camps, four additional camps will be held next month, and five special camps will open during the Passover holiday, where hundreds of youth from the north and south will attend, both from municipalities still evacuated and those who have already returned home and are now readjusting to the complex routine.
Shawna Gudman, the founder of the Summer Camps Israel forum, said: “We are happy to expand the activities also for the Passover holiday and to provide additional youth with the vacation they so desperately need – a few days that disconnect them from the current reality, allow them to develop, change the atmosphere, and connect with their friends. Thanks to the dedication of the camps’ friends in the forum and the resources we have raised for this purpose, we can influence, even if only slightly, the situation of the youth who have experienced the most difficult events imaginable. We see their condition when they arrive and how they are when they leave us after a few days, and it gladdens our hearts.”